Identifying Essential Skills for Violence Prevention

描述(由申请人提供)：本项目旨在提供 发展工作需要改善背景相关性和生态化 城市青少年暴力预防方案的有效性。需要 这一努力在以普遍的学校为基础的发展过程中变得明显 干预被称为以和平和积极的方式做出回应(RIPP)。这 干预的目的是教授社交、认知和情感技能 青少年需要有效地解决问题情况。虽然 对RIPP的评估一直令人鼓舞，该计划的有效性 类似的干预可以通过更好地了解 城市青少年面临的问题情况，最有可能的策略是 在这些情况下是有效的，以及抑制或促进其 使用。因为之前的研究主要集中在患有严重疾病的男性青少年 行为问题和机构环境中的问题，需要工作来 确定与生活在更广泛的青少年群体中相关的技能 在高风险环境中。 该项目涉及一系列定性和定量研究。 在为高中提供服务的城市学校系统中对青少年进行的 来自低收入家庭的非裔美国学生所占比例。具体目标 目的是：(1)确定以下人员最常面临的问题情况 青少年使他们面临成为受害者或肇事者的风险 暴力；(2)确定特定的认知、行为和情感技能 最有效地帮助他们使用适应性、非暴力方法来解决 这些情况；(3)找出阻碍成功使用这些情况的障碍 (4)检查性别差异 增加干预对男孩和女孩的相关性；(5)测试 验证先前研究结果的模型；及(6)修订 RIPP干预，以便解决问题情况、技能、 障碍，以及前面研究确定的支持。这个项目将 利用一系列焦点小组和对青少年、家长、学校的采访 工作人员和其他社区成员。这些数据将用于构建和 从经验上验证中介变量和调节变量的模型 与暴力和受害有关。这项工作的完成将使 为随后的大规模评价研究做好准备。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This project was designed to provide the developmental work needed to improve the contextual relevance and ecological validity of violence prevention programs for urban adolescents. The need for this effort became evident during the development of a universal school-based intervention called Responding in Peaceful and Positive Ways (RIPP). This intervention was designed to teach the social, cognitive, and emotional skills adolescents need to address problem situations effectively. Although evaluations of RIPP have been encouraging, the effectiveness of this program and similar interventions could be improved by a better understanding of the problem situations faced by urban adolescents, the strategies most likely to be effective in those situations, and factors that inhibit or facilitate their use. Because previous research has focused on male adolescents with severe behavior problems and those in institutional settings, work is needed to identify the skills relevant to more general populations of adolescents living in high risk environments. This project involves a series of qualitative and quantitative studies conducted with adolescents in an urban school system that serves a high percentage of African American students from low income families. Specific aims are to: (1) identify the problem situations most commonly faced by these adolescents that place them at risk for becoming victims or perpetrators of violence; (2) identify the specific cognitive, behavioral, and emotional skills most effective in helping them use adaptive, non-violent methods to address these situations; (3) identify barriers that prevent successful use of these skills and supports that facilitate their use; (4) examine gender differences to increase the relevance of the intervention for both boys and girls; (5) test a model to validate the findings of the preceding studies; and (6) revise the RIPP intervention so that it addresses the problem situations, skills, barriers, and supports identified by the preceding studies. This project will use a series of focus groups and interviews with adolescents, parents, school staff, and other community members. These data will be used to construct and empirically validate a model of the mediating and moderating variables associated with violence and victimization. Completion of this work will set the stage for subsequent large-scale evaluation studies.